Mildrelis Rodriguez finishes with 14 kills
 Mildrelis Rodriguez led all players with 14 kills to lead the University of Evansville volleyball team to a 3-0 sweep against MVC rival Southern Illinois inside Meeks Family Fieldhouse.
Rodriguez tallied her 14 kills in 37 attempts and also registered 8 digs. Cathy Schreiber also had a great night for UE (10-14, 4-8 MVC) as she totaled 11 kills. Cassie Brooks led the way with 20 digs and Allana McInnis notched 17 assists, 8 digs and two service aces. Brooks also notched two aces.
The sweep was the first for the Purple Aces in a conference match since defeating Bradley by a 3-0 final on Oct. 3, 2014 in a home match.
Southern Illinois (5-18, 4-8 MVC) saw Patience Brown and Maggie Nedoma post seven kills apiece.
Adeline Payne had a solo block in the early going as the Purple Aces scored the opening two points of the night. Southern Illinois quickly came back to tie it at 4-4 before taking their first lead at 7-6. SIU widened its lead to 9-6 before an Allana McInnis service ace got UE within one at 10-9. The Salukis had the answer once again and stretched their lead out to 24-19.
That is when things got interesting. Mildrelis Rodriguez took over and notched three kills in a run that saw the Aces tie it up at 24-24. The back-and-forth action continued before UE put the finishing touches on the set. With the score tied at 28-28, Taylor Jones notched a service ace before Cathy Schreiber and Rachel Tam had a block to give UE the win.
Riding the momentum they gained from the exciting opening set win, UE scored the first three points of the game and continued to lead at 6-4 as Rocio Fortuny had three early kills. The Salukis made their way back, taking their first edge of the frame at 8-7. They would hold the lead until UE went up 16-15 as Fortuny posted another kill.
SIU took its turn, reeling off the next four to take a 19-16 lead before it reached four at 21-17. UE rallied as another pivotal McInnis ace tied the score up at 23-23. The run continued with Rodriguez finishing it off with her 12th kill of the evening as UE took a 2-0 match lead with a 25-23 win.
UE had a strong start to game three, taking a 7-2 lead. Later, Rachel Tam ace pushed the lead to six at 11-5. Evansville’s lead continued to grow as two more aces, both by Cassie Brooks, made it a 19-11 game. The Aces put the icing on the cake, running away to a 25-13 win to earn their first MVC match sweep in three years.
Evansville returns to the road next weekend for a swing through the state of Iowa. A match at UNI begins the weekend on Friday before the Aces head to Des Moines to take on Drake. Both matches begin at 7 p.m.
